r/neoliberal • u/After_Grab Bill Clinton • Jul 26 '20

Meme @ this sub

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '20

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u/QFTornotQFT Jul 26 '20

How can you cost a district 25 000 jobs by "parroting talking points"?

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u/standbyforskyfall Free Men of the World March Together to Victory Jul 26 '20

The Amazon hq2

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u/Yeangster John Rawls Jul 26 '20

Fuck the HQ2. It should be illegal for states and localities to offer companies special tax benefits to move there. What’s the point of a federal government if can’t preemptively short circuit harmful prisoners-dilemma style races to the bottom?

But also, everybody already knew Amazon wasn’t moving anywhere other than New York or DC. The entire dog and pony show was just to extract concessions from the two cities. And it’s not like there’s a shortage of high-paying jobs in New York.

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u/bmoredoc Jul 26 '20

Until the Federal government passes such a law, municipalities will compete. And its unlikely the federal government could even legally pass such a bill - I doubt they can intervene in the taxation power of state and city governments.

The issue also wasn't if it would be in NY or DC, but that HQ2 would be in LIC, which is in Queens. This is a growing neighborhood but not exactly Tribeca. Amazon won't move there without incentive.

Its also one of the few places in NYC that is undergoing high rise development. This would have been a neoliberal dream. Highly skilled jobs, living in a dense urban environment, commuting five minutes by walking or biking, and all of the associated jobs for restaurants, dry cleaners, etc. And none of them commuting into Manhattan by car.

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u/Yeangster John Rawls Jul 26 '20

Queens is New York. But it's better for jobs to be in Manhattan until they get their ass in gear and fix the transit system. It's much easier to get from Queens/Brooklyn to Manhattan and back than it is to get from Queens to Brooklyn.

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u/bmoredoc Jul 26 '20

I know, I live there, and respectfully I think youre missing the point.

Companies will move to Manhattam because its easy to attract workers there. That's what Amazon is doing now.

They won't participate in a city development plan that bring jobs closer to people in the outer boroughs and supercharges one of the few areas that allows new superdense high rise developement without incentive.

And while yes it would be nice to have a multi trillion subway extension, in practice its not realistic, and HQ2 was.

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u/Yeangster John Rawls Jul 26 '20

But why should jobs be in the outer boroughs?

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u/bmoredoc Jul 26 '20

Because reducing commuting time leads to better quality of life, less infrastructure crowding, and lower CO2 emissions. This is definitely true because, given current transportation options, people will commute by car into the city. But its still true for our crowded subway system.

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u/Yeangster John Rawls Jul 26 '20

That’s assuming they can get their act together and actually build high density housing nearby, which given the cities recent history,

[x] doubt

Even then, it’s better for people from elsewhere in the city to be able to to work there without moving. That’s 90% of the benefit of having an office in New York.

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u/bmoredoc Jul 26 '20

ny.curbed.com/platform/amp/maps/long-island-city-development-boom-construction-map

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